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The UF College of Dentistry is the only public-funded dental school in Florida and is recognized as one of the top U.S. dental schools for the quality of its educational programs, oral health research enterprise and commitment to patient care and service.

The College of Medicine, the largest of six colleges at the University of Florida Health Science Center, opened in 1956 with a mission to increase Florida's supply of highly qualified physicians, provide advanced health-care services to Florida residents and foster discovery in health research.

Founded in 1956, the University of Florida College of Nursing is the premier educational institution for nursing in the state of Florida and is ranked in the top 10 percent of all nursing graduate programs nationwide. The UF College of Nursing continually attracts and retains the highest caliber of nursing students and faculty with a passion for science and caring.

Established in 1923, the College of Pharmacy is the oldest college in the UF Health Science Center. Ranked among the top schools of pharmacy nationally, the college supports research, service and educational programs enhanced with online technologies.

The UF College of Veterinary Medicine is Florida's only veterinary college and provides many unique educational programs for students and services aimed at helping pets, wildlife and endangered species. We offer a a four-year Doctor of Veterinary Medicine programs as well as M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Veterinary Medical Sciences.

Co-located with the Shands Jacksonville Hospital, the Jacksonville Health Science Center excels in education, research and patient care that expresses our abiding values of compassion, excellence, professionalism and innovation. Our state-of-the-art medical center serves an urban population of 1 million from north Florida to south Georgia.

The UFCOM-J offers accredited graduate medical education residency and fellowship programs, in addition to non-standard fellowship programs. Clinical rotations in all the major disciplines are provided for UFCOM undergraduate medical students and elective rotations to students from other accredited schools.

The UFHSC-J is a clinical teaching site for the Gainesville-based College of Nursing. Students rotate through the various clinical settings on the campus, and primary care centers and specialty care centers located throughout Jacksonville.

The UF College of Pharmacy-Jacksonville offers a four-year Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) Program completed entirely in Jacksonville. Also offered on campus is an American Society of Health-System Pharmacists-accredited pharmacy residency program at Shands Jacksonville.

University of Florida Health knows how important ongoing medical learning is to health care providers and the community. That is why we provide online Continuing Medical Education (CME) courses for you to complete for CME credits. These courses share the latest in medical knowledge, teach new patient-relationship skills and help providers deal with relevant current issues.

A University of Florida researcher has received a $400,000 National Institutes of Health grant to evaluate the best time to initiate breast milk expression in mothers of very low birth weight infants in an effort to improve health outcomes for this vulnerable population.

College of Nursing clinical assistant professor Leslie Parker and her team, which includes associate professor Charlene Krueger and College of Medicine clinical assistant professor Sandra Sullivan, will compare different times post-birth for expressing milk in the mothers and evaluate which time frame is optimal for ensuring adequate breast milk production.

“I hope that my program of research can improve short- and long-term health outcomes for very low birth weight infants by improving their nutritional status and decreasing complications due to prematurity,” Parker said.

Mothers of very low birth weight infants often delay the initial milk expression session following delivery. Earlier initiation of milk expression has been associated with increased milk volume and an earlier onset of abundant milk production in mothers.

“The literature has shown that most mothers of very low birth weight infants typically don’t initiate milk expression until 12 to 18 hours after birth,” Parker said. “With the results of our pilot study, we would like to see if an earlier milk expression can yield positive results with a larger sample size.”

It has been well-documented that breast milk is optimal for infants of all ages, and that is especially true for very low birth weight infants. Breast milk provides vast protection to immature infants, including improved digestion, decreased length of stay, and reduced risk of infection and necrotizing enterocolitis — a serious intestinal complication occurring in premature infants.

A pilot study Parker conducted found that women who started pumping within an hour of birth produced twice as much milk as others in the study, and 30 percent of women who waited six hours before initiation pumping produced no milk for the first three days after delivery.

Parker’s NIH study will assess the optimal time for milk expression after birth, specifically comparing expression within one hour, one to three hours and six hours in a group of 180 randomly assigned mothers. The mothers will receive written and oral pumping instructions and will be visited approximately 24 hours after the initial pumping session to ensure they are using the pump successfully and to provide additional instruction as needed. Upon discharge, mothers will be given a hospital-grade electrical pump.

The mothers’ milk volumes will be assessed at the initial pumping session, for the first seven days and at five other points through 42 days after birth.

Research reported in this news release was supported by the National Institute of Nursing Research of the National Institutes of Health under award number 00100160. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

About the Author

Tracy Brown Wright

Public Relations and Alumni Affairs Director, College of Nursing

Tracy Wright is director of public relations and alumni affairs for the University of Florida College of Nursing. She has overseen the College’s communications since 2002 and assumed responsibility over... Read More